Syria's 'Hit List' Seen Marking 17 More Prominent Lebanese for Assassination

A renowned journalist is considering moving abroad and a wealthy cabinet minister is in the market for a state-of-the-art bomb detector, as fears of a "hit list" do the rounds in Beirut following a spate of assassinations linked to Syria's secret service. Rumors buzz through Beirut's newsrooms and coffee shops about who is next marked for elimination from among the prominent anti-Syria Lebanese politicians or journalists after three politicians and a journalist were killed in unclaimed attacks since February. Lebanese opposition leaders have pointed a finger at the Assad regime in Damascus and President Lahoud's affiliated regime in Beirut for the murders. They contend the assassinations are plotted and executed by Syrian intelligence operatives with affiliates from Lahoud's still unbroken security services doing the cover-up. Some sources speak of 17 politicians and prominent journalists remain on Syria's 'hit list,' including Druze leader Walid Jumblat, Saad Rafik Hariri and jailed Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea as well as Elias Atallah, leader of the Democratic Left Movement and Fares Soeid of Qornet Shahwan. "I know that a list of men to assassinate is circulating ... I don't know which names are on the list," said Atallah, whom the AFP described as dyed-in-the-wool anti-Syrian politician and new Member of Parliament. Atallah had joined the March 14 opposition uprising that forced Syria to end its 29-year reign on terror in Lebanon last April, in the aftermath of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination. "I don't know if mine is written on it, but it would be an honor for me to be one of the likely targets for enemies of democracy," the 59-year-old Atallah said. He is not the only one who is convinced that a list of people "to eliminate" is circulating somewhere. Nabil Hawi, brother of Communist leader George Hawi who was killed earlier in a car-bombing attack in Beirut earlier in the week, told a radio reporter that "George had in his possession a list of political figures to eliminate but he did not divulge it." Hawi was pro-Syrian during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war but became outspoken against Damascus after Hariri's murder. The anti-Syrian movement lost another of its advocates on June 2 when journalist and author Samir Kassir, of An Nahar, was killed in a car bomb explosion outside his Beirut home in the same method employed in Hawi's murder. The killings have led the United States to increase pressure on Syria, with administration officials saying they suspect Syrian intelligence operatives are still in Lebanon. Jumblat has publicly ascertained that he is on Syria's 'death list,' calling on the population of the Druze Hinterland to stay "sensible and calm" if he is assassinated. "This is my last will and testament," he said, warning the Druze community against repeating the blood bath of 1977, when some 200 Christian villagers were cut-throated in the aftermath of the assassination of Walid's father, Kamal Jumblat. Jumblat urged to be given a public funeral similar to the million-strong procession that carried Rafik Hariri to his downtown Beirut grave. (Naharnet-AFP- AP photo shows mourners waving red flags in support of the Communist party during the funeral procession of slain former Lebanese Communist party leader George Hawi in Beirut)